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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Fairytale Finish

Hoorah for a Fairytale Finish! I've taken lots of pretty pictures for you all......

As you can see, I made my fairytale blocks in to a wall hanging. I wanted to make something for my god daughter in Tokyo, and have already made her a quilt (only a rag quilt, she will get a "real" quilt very soon!) and cushion, so checked with her Mummy that she liked fairytales (she's 2.5 - OF COURSE she likes fairytales!), and was also told she had nothing on her walls yet. Bingo!

Now, I know the blue block stands out a lot more than the others, but I just couldn't come to terms with either omitting it or making another brighter hued block and omitting a different one. So, it is what it is!

When it came to the quilting part, I thought quite a lot about how I was going to tackle it. I knew I wanted to free motion myself silly, but how? I started off with one design, and then unpicked. Started another, unpicked again. Then just sat. And stared. In the end, I picked it up and just went with the flow. Each block is completely different.

I googled each fairytale individually, because we don't actually own any of them! I free motioned a quote from each of them. Once the quotes were done, I whacked in a different coloured thread and had fun.

"Happily Ever After" - The Cinderella block has an organic kind of baptist fan! And then on the doorway, some sharp lines. I've just noticed she needs a bucket handle! I was very careful not to quilt over the faces of each Princess.

"She slept for one hundred years" - Sleeping beauty was already quite a busy block with the text print and different colour combinations. So I stuck with some little flowers on the quilt and lots or organic lines throughout.

"Once upon a time, long long ago" - Snow White got some more organic straight lines.....

And was officially my first ever attempt at embroidering a face! Oh, and an apple stalk..... It's hard to tell, but there's also "love" free motioned on the text print.

"So they called her Thumbelina" - I don't even know what to call the pattern I quilted here! But I like it!

Lots of diagonal lines across the castle, and the clouds have little curved arches, the same as the fabric print.

Which makes it all cushy and cloud like....

And the backing is my favourite Ikea print. I did the hanging "pockets" the same as on my Refractatorium wall hanging. Little triangles in the corners to slip the dowel in to, and then a 10" pocket in the middle so it doesn't sag. More hand sewing on there - I seriously don't know what's wrong with me?!!?!

And this photo? Well, I took it on my iPhone, and really just love the angle! I adore this project, and I can't wait to give it to my little god daughter when we meet up on the Gold Coast the week before Christmas!

In the details:

Finished size - 46" x 24"

Fabrics - Too many to declare! But a special mention to a bunch of Art Gallery prints that have been sitting in my stash awaiting their calling. The white & pink fabric used for the clouds was from a fabulous low volume bundle I bought on special from Pink Castle Fabrics - meant to be really! That fat quarter JUST scraped in being big enough for its purpose! The sashing and binding is a Michael Miller Dumb Dot - not so dumb really....

Thread - I used a few different colours in this project! Aurifil #2024 white, #2605 grey/silver, #2000 sand, Aurifil #2692 black for the writing and face embroidery and because I couldn't wait for my next Aurifil delivery to get this finished, I pulled out a beautiful baby pink Gutermann I had.